Surfing Waves

After some more advice...
Off to the coast tomorrow forecast is 3-4 ft (chest high) at my level of ability and confidence this is my limit for my 'improving but poor' paddle fitness / skills to get out Last time I went in these conditions I was knackered after getting out once and cut session short which was a little frustrating.

I have two boards (pics below) 7'2' x 221/4 x 3 and 6'6 x 22 x 2 13/16 get on well with both and paddle fine to catch waves with both (I'm 63kg 5'4) Use the 7'2 for smaller days and if I haven't been in for a while. Whilst the 7'2 is easier to paddle I find it tough getting out through the impact zone the 6'6 is harder to paddle but more manageable getting through waves.

I know that ultimately I need to continue improving paddle conditioning which I'm doing following the advice from good folks on here, but that's not going to change before my session tomorrow and I really want to nail a longer session, so which board do you think I'll have more success with?

Thanks in advance

Unless you can properly duckdive the 6'6 – and I'm assuming that you can't? – then it won't make a huge difference to getting out back. So I'd go with the larger board to give you extra paddling power once you're out there

Yeah that bigger board looks nice and cruisy for progressing on! I'm sure you'd stay out longer on it and with less fatigue.

I've got a 7'2 funboard thats epoxy and near impossible to duck dive at my weight (64kg). What I do for some of the bigger waves is just wrap my arm around the board when the wave comes and kind of dive under it with the board flat. Then just pop back on the board and continue paddling. Most of the time it's more effective than my mates who tried to duck dive the same wave and end up 5M further back towards the shore each time.

The trick to going through surf........well there isn't one trick......... there are many. Duck dive is great if you can do it and the wave isn't breaking top to bottom right there. Probably the thing I do that saves me the most pounding is to look at the surf and plan out my way through it. Don't just go straight out. Figure out what the waves are doing and pick the easiest route out past the waves (not the shortest) but often that is also the shortest from the shoreline. Once you get outside the surf then you paddle to the lineup that may be much longer than paddling straight out but paddling outside of the surf is so much easier than paddling in the surf. I have a whole variety of ways to go through surf depending on the situation. I think you need to just pick the board you want to use and learn to use it.

For 3-4 foot waves you shouldn't have a problem getting out with a bigger board (unless you are on one of those beaches that is just wall to wall white water). Do as oldman says, and if you are caught just turtle roll. Timing is important - when there is a lull paddle like mad...

Hahaha well I learnt some lessons yesterday! Dbbb you're right I don't have a proper duck dive more of a brave effort so took the advice and went with the bigger board.

Got out ok sat in a dumb place got cleaned out by a bigger set and ended up back inside too tired to make it out again. So after a quick tantrum decided to just focus on paddling better and perfecting my turtle roll, see how far I got and to take any reforms that came my way - lo and behold I found myself back out fairly easily without actually trying as I was concentrating so hard on paddling and rolling technique. Got some nice waves and finally had a chance to sit and watch better surfers in bigger conditions.

Moral of the story concentrate on process not outcome.

I'm now going to set really technical goals when I'm not feeling confident about a session rather than telling mysel that I 'have to get out' or 'man up'

Yeah that's the thing. First paddling then learn how the conditions affect your paddling (like bigger waves, currents, reef, rocks, ect) then learn how best to deal with how the ocean affects your paddling. It's all a learning process and just trying to power your way out isn't usually the best answer but if you get into better shape it might be one answer. There are many ways to deal with paddling out through the waves but for all of them fitness is the key. The less fit you are the less options you have.